Las medias rojas: raising awareness of sexist violence in Spanish classrooms in Albania.

Abstract

This article arises from the author's own experience as a Spanish teacher in a university environment in Tirana, the Republic of Albania. Direct contact with young students, mostly women, studying Hispanic Philology at the University of Tirana, the capital, and the interest in knowing their customs and traditions led me to make a teaching proposal based on gender awareness within the subject of Spanish Literature. Firstly, this article gives some insights into the situation of gender-based violence in Albania and the type of education and students that exist at the University in order to understand the context where the teaching proposal is developed. Then, we continue with the unit that offers pre-reading activities: an introduction to the life and work of Emilia Pardo Bazán and, the Albanian author Parashqevi Qiriazi and, finally, the guided reading of “Las medias rojas” by the Spanish author. We finish with post-reading activities based on written expression. The unit not only addresses the issue of violence against women, but also highlights and compares the literary work of two authors from different countries with common feminist goals, which was very attractive to the students.